An incredibly heart-wrenching incident showing the brutality of
live exports took place last month when a Brazilian vessel carrying
5,600 cattle suffered ventilation problems, got stranded on its way to
Egypt and almost 3,000 of these animals endured torturous deaths.

This is a
clear example of the horrible treatment God’s farmed animals endure in
order for humans to meet their desire for meat, eggs and dairy. It’s
simply appalling how little regard humanity has for the lives of these
animals, who are products of God’s loving creativity. Christianity
calls us to align our most inner-values and beliefs with our choices.
Following Jesus’ teachings of compassion, mercy and love encourages
the transition to a plant-based diet. Our circle of compassion has no
limits.

Mark Bittman, Opinion columnist and the
Times magazine’s food columnist, explains why eating meat is not only
unhealthy and unsustainable, but most importantly, damaging to our
psyque. Bittman points out that in order to continue eating meat from
factory farmed animals we have to ignore the connection between their
suffering and our benefit. In fact, the mere reason that animal-based
agribusiness keeps the process hidden from the public, explains why so
many people are unable to make this connection.

The cost of animal
suffering to humanity is great. In fact, many times the evildoer
suffers more than the victim. There is abundant evidence indicating
that eating animals and their by-products causes much disease and
suffering in humans, causes much environmental degradation and sadly,
much insensitivity. The latter might be the most problematic since it
affects not only the way we treat God’s animals, but also the way we
treat our fellow humans.

Bruce Friedrich, senior director for strategic initiatives at Farm
Sanctuary, explains why "ag-gag laws" are not only hurting farmed
animals but also people. Clearly, the animal agriculture industry has
much to hide if they push such laws that essentially raise a red flag
for everyone to notice.

The meat, egg and diary industries are, I believe, exposing themselves
by pushing these “ag-gag bills.” The public knows that they have much
to hide because they fear people will learn about the unimaginable
abuse God’s farmed animals suffer behind walls. While it’s true that
so far 2 states have passed these bills (Iowa and Utah) there are
still plenty of states where undercover videos can and will continue
to expose the inherent cruelty of raising animals for food. After all,
the sad reality is that everywhere in the U.S. God’s animals are being
raised, abused and killed for profit and taste.

6. This
Week’s Video: “Colony Cages” for chickens in the European Union

The European Union’s ban on battery-cages to raise egg-laying hens
went into effect in January of this year. New Zealand seems to be the
next country in Europe that might transition battery-cages into colony
cages. However, animal advocates and consumers are asking how much
better these colony cages are than battery-cages. After reviewing an
undercover video the answer seems to be “Not much.”